The Congress Hispanic Caucus (CHC) tweeted this week that “it's been over a month” since members called on Health and Human Services (HHS) to hand over “updates on the remaining children in [Office of Refugee Resettlement] custody who are separated from their families and what this administration is doing to ensure the safety of these children.”
But children stolen from the arms of parents are still in U.S. custody, 126 days past a judge’s deadline. In fact, a recent ProPublica investigation has found that immigration officials have been quietly exploiting a loophole in Judge Dana Sabraw’s order to again start separating some families, falsely accusing some parents of gang membership in order to justify stealing their children.
“When Julio arrived at the border with his son,” the investigation found, “he had a letter from a lawyer in El Salvador explaining the pair’s history of being targeted and harassed by gangs. Julio also had with him sworn statements from his former employer vouching for his character and stating he was not involved in any gang activity.”
But officials took his son and, without providing any evidence, accused him of being a gang member. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) “spokeswoman Corry Schiermeyer declined to provide the evidence the agency had to support the allegation,” the investigation found, “saying only that it was ‘law enforcement sensitive.’ Nor would she say why CBP believed Julio was a danger to his child.”
More state-sanctioned kidnapping, out of supposed safety concerns for children. Yet, as the government refuses to hand over evidence regarding Julio’s separation from his son, a government watchdog that revealed the administration waived FBI background checks for employees at the ever-expanding prison camp for unaccompanied kids in Tornillo, Texas. What could ever go wrong?
But even being lucky enough to go back to a family doesn’t mean these children are free from their trauma. Seven-year-old daughter Litzy was reunited with her mom in Virginia after nearly four months of separation. The 60 Minutes team that documented their reunion said that Litzy kept asking her mom ”over and over again, ‘are they coming to take me away again?’”
Today, Thursday, Nov. 29, marks 126 days since the judge’s deadline. Family separation remains a crisis.